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I’m Bob Larson. In an effort to close the gap between what happens on the farm and what people in the cities ‘think’ happens on the farm, Save Family Farming wants everyone to know where their fresh produce is coming from.

Director Gerald Baron says it’s a growing problem …

BARON … “What people don’t understand, a lot of people in our cities, the people who are going into supermarkets and buying food, they should look at the food packages and where their food is coming from because the imported food has risen greatly from 12 percent of our food supply in the 1990’s to over 20 percent now.”

Baron says those imports bring with them their own set of problems …

BARON … “Along with that rise in imported food we have, imported food is 5 times more likely to have pesticide residues above the FDA-allowed limit, that’s from the FDA. And the CDC reports that imported food has caused a matching rise in food-related illnesses. So, there’s a direct correlation between the increase in food illnesses and the amount of imported food coming in.”

Baron says there’s nothing wrong with a little competition, as long as the competition is playing by the same rules …

BARON … “And a big part of the reason of why we’re importing so much more food now is because of our very high labor costs caused by the regulations and the shortage of workers and by the pressures put on by the union activists.”

Listen tomorrow when Baron tells us more about why the availability of farm labor is the tipping point for local grower’s ability to compete.